Hugo Chávez Travels to Cuba For More Treatment, His Former MD Says He Has 2 Years to Live

The Venezuelan president’s most recent Cuba trip comes just after his former personal surgeon told the press he gives Chávez two years to live.

President Hugo Chávez was greeted by Cuban head of State Raúl Castro at the José Martí International Airport last night; the Venezuelan leader traveled to Cuba accompanied by Venezuela’s health, agriculture, and science and technology ministers, to undergo rigorous medical examinations following the four cycles of chemotherapy he had this past summer.

According to a presidential press release, Chávez said to have faith in that the medical exams would be satisfactory, and told the Venezuelan people he’d be back mid-week with good news.

Mexican weekly publication “Milenio” however, published Sunday an interview with Salvador Navarrete, a former personal surgeon of the Venezuelan leader who says the president’s health is quite precarious, and gave the president two years to live.

According to Navarrete, he met with other Chávez family doctors and concluded the president has a form of pelvic cancer called “sarcoma,” and not prostatic cancer, as widely speculated.

“This is why they [Cuban Doctors] have given him four rounds of chemo,” Navarrete said, “If it had prostatic cancer, you would treat it with hormones, and you wouldn’t be able to tell he was on treatment.”

If Navarrete is correct, and the treatment that the Venezuelan president is undergoing is for a sarcoma, his life expectancy would be close to 2 years. Navarrete concluded “That explains the decision of having elections ahead of schedule.”